Less than 3 months to go! It's the DECLUTTERING FOR CHRISTMAS thread...

[fuzzpig]

My house is a state! I am absolutely determined to declutter in time for Xmas this year. I have never managed it before

My main wants are:

• to clear out our tiny kitchen (it's a galley style, so small you can barely swing an atom let alone a cat!) so that cooking is less stressful and we will be more likely to do festive baking etc - another thing I've never managed to do...

• to do a massive sweep of all DCs toys, books and clothes. They have WAY too many, and especially with toys it means that new things don't really get appreciated because they get lost among everything else.

• to completely sort out our living room so it actually looks nice when decorated and there is room to play.

I am unable to do much ATM because I'm not very well, but this could be a long term thing so I don't want to just leave it - I want to do a tiny bit every day. Yesterday I collected a laundry bin full of recycling stuff - mostly pieces from some orchard toys games - some of which due to clutter have never really even been played with properly

I can't be the only one who needs to declutter for Xmas - who's with me?

Oh, and I've said family can come for Christmas houli here, so no pressure then .

Vat receipts sounds like aa nightmare, just as well no one needs to see our mess. That is my after Christmas list!

Clothes all away, dishwasher emptied and reloaded, washing machine on, rainbows bag, dinosaur tails and ping pong balls (for parachute game) all by the door.

Going to tackle the craft deludge now!

hanglider I would do the hall first as you can always close a bedroom door if someone comes round, but you can't shut a hall (unless you have an enormous house and you are just talking aabout the East wing!). Back to work.

Happy. Birthday wheredidiputit

VAT check sounds more than awful, my sympathies.

I didn't get much done yesterday as ds had some 24 hr vomit/diahorria bug thing. Thankfully he is much better today and here have been no emittances!

So far today I have caught up with general housework. Bathroom cleaned, all of downstairs hoovered and front facing windows cleaned (gawd they were shocking).

If only DS would allow me to put him down for a minute, my house would be fabulously decluttered! Damn separation anxiety

Happy birthday, where!

And thanks for the carboot tips, oreo. It went well - we cleared a LOAD of stuff, went for the "price it cheap, don't take it home" approach, and managed to sort everything into 'charity' vs 'rebox for next car boot' at the end, so just two (fairly small) boxes to go back into the attic for next year's car boot (started with the back seats down, and car full, so pretty pleased with that!)

Dcs loved it - esp dd who predictably was a fantastic haggler - in fact she managed to haggle people up from HER start point, so they paid more than she initially wanted. She'll go far... (just worry in what direction...). DS tended to point out the chips and missing buttons to people!

Happy birthday wheredidiputit

VAT sounds like a nightmare. Must remind DH to do all his VAT stuff before he gets those red letters again...

Chez Tipsy we cleaned out the cellar while DH did the garden. We don't have a shed (garden too small) so now we have room for the paddling pool, lawnmower etc etc.

I think just about everyone in our street did their gardens yesterday. DH came back from the shops and said every bush in the street was getting a good trim

Oh and thanks to who ever said add a buy it now to things on ebay. Sold three pairs of boots over the weekend that way.

Ohh can I join in with the decluttering? I have made a good start, seeing as we are have new radiators and combi put in this week but we are still overflowing with toys!!!

id like to join in :) its not going well, someone motivate me, i have loads of videos yet no video player...millions of unloved toys, and drawers full of crap...

Welcome to the newbies :o

Due to a downturn I have done nothing today except Xmas shopping we have agreed to start attacking our bedroom tomorrow though...

I've not done anything since I posted on the first day!!
Well that's not strictly true tonight I've sold 8 tops which I'd put on eBay .
I've taken photos of the 3 Halloween outfits that dd had in her wardrobe. Will list them tomorrow night.
I usually only manage to get the day to day stuff done when I get in for work. I've got another busy weekend coming up uni open day sat and ds is 18 on Sunday.
The weekend after I will be sorting through all the stuff I've put aside for eBay. If it doesn't get sorted its going to a charity shop.
I need to concentrate on Xmas shopping and can't do that with piles of stuff cluttering the house!!

Well I have managed to track down 6 out of 7 years of vat receipts Dh had stuck them in the roofspace for some reason

Need to just get the current years into the file and it will be all ready to drop at accountants by Friday. Still its forced me to file the paperwork mountain which has been steadily growing all year BUT I did find nearly £30 in Tesco vouchers so its been a good day!

Finish filing tomorrow and then move onto finishing the kitchen (after I tackle the creeping tide of coats and wellies in my lovely shiny utility room )

Very jealous of those of you who have started their Christmas shopping - I can't even begin to get my head round the idea!

in honour of joining in i sorted some bags of clothes to pass on, bin or sell. and went through all the boys toys trying and failing to make space in their room. but it does look tidier...

Failed to get the loft boarded out again! That was DP's only night in untill next monday again so I'm another week delayed.

Have done lots of Christmas shopping though .

Today I am going to make a banister so won't be decluttering at home. DP and DD are out with MIL - I was going to set to in the house but now I have to do the banister.

Must try harder!

i was planning on carrying on, but im sewing and eating hersheys... so not going well today. but dp has been on nights so got to be quiiiiet

I have been working on decluttering all year. There have been new deposits since I started, but there is a lot less than when I started.

At the moment, I am working on clearing out the paper mountain beside the armchair in the sitting room - dumping things I don't want and filing the recipes, patterns and craft ideas that I do want to keep. I have removed about 4' of magazines over the past 3-4 weeks and another 6" of papers last night. I will get there eventually!!

I need to make some more progress in the study too, so that I can get the sewing for presents done. But I was able to clear enough space to make some cards over the weekend, so not completely hopeless.

I have actually achieved something today! We just did an hour in our bedroom and filled 2 bin bags full of random rubbish. And that's barely made a dent

Also moved most of the books back into DCs' room, haven't sorted through them yet though. Really want to do more today but have to take a break first. Having to pace myself is really annoying but if I push it too far I will regret it and not be able to do any more for several days! Slow and steady wins the decluttering race in this house... hopefully! We haven't ever completed it before

DD1 room still tidy
Hall is being attacked. Have filled 13 carrier bags with clothes and bits to go to charity. Set aside a few Boden things to go on ebay and a bit more to go to the NCT sale. Need to get it OUT OF THE HOUSE rather than let it clutter up some other space. Still can't find the boiler though it must be there somewhere!

Have lovely chair that we don't need but were given. can't freecycle it because giver uses freecycle. can't charity shop it for same reason...aaarrrghh I just want it gone and out of my hall.

Oh crikey we now have another reason to declutter! Our landlords are getting our windows replaced (definitely a good thing for insulation) - unfortunately for 19th oct which was when we had scheduled in a rare-as-hen's-teeth lunch date, so we've had to rearrange that.

So we've got to try to get rid of as much stuff as possible before then.

Hanglider can you take it to a charity shop in another town? I need to do something today, have playdates tomorrow, will need it a bit tidier. Maybe will clear the craft dining table before playgroup at 2.

Kitchen cupboards are done!!!! Just the cookery books and random crap stuff sitting on the work tops. Have filled the bin with out of date herbs, spices and jars with only half and inch of unidentified matter in the bottom-loads of space and I can actually see what food I have Also found several tins with a best before date of 1998 - that's the year we moved here ffs!

hanglider why don't you ebay the chair as well? Or have you a refuge or council furniture recycling place anywhere near? btw well done on the 13 bags!

Oh don't worry about the food, when I was about 19 I found a carton of Something in my parents' cupboard that went out of date before I was born!

I need to do my cupboards too. For some reason we have store cupboard food in two different places, but we should move it all into the bigger space (actually an old non-working fridge that belongs to the landlords) and then use the emptied cupboard to spread out our crockery/cookware a bit - at the moment it's so tightly crammed into other cupboards that it's hard to find what we want.

Lol @ 13 full bin bags and food from 1998! I love this thread

Nowt achieved here today.

I really need to tackle the kitchen but I am stalling and I don't really know why. In the next year or so the kitchen will be gutted, so it's a good idea to get rid of excess shite now. It doesn't help that it is under ds's bedroom, so I can't really make a noise in there when he's in bed (which of course is the best time to do it).

I think we got rid of a similar amount of binbags once when we cleared out the cupboard under the stairs. That Friday we heard the binman walk up the bath and shout FUCKING HELL!!! LOOK AT ALL THESE BAGS!!!